“Old Friends”

January 22, 2009 on 10:50 am | In Baby Boomers |

Last weekend I had the good fortune to hear a masterful musical duo, called Aztec Two-Step, perform at the Fairfield Theatre Company (”FTC”), on whose board I am privileged to serve. Imagine an intimate arena theatre with perfect acoustics, that holds only 200 people, and where there are no bad seats.

The two members of the band, Rex and Neal, are playing a concert tour of the Simon & Garfunkel Songbook, and their set went from “Sounds of Silence” to “Kathy’s Song (America)” to “Homeward Bound,” ”Hazy Shade of Winter,” “The Boxer,” ”Mrs. Robinson,” ”El Condor Pasa,” finishing up in an encore with “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.”

And the crowd (Baby Boomers of course), just ate it up. It’s like with the exiting of Mr. Bush stage right, an emotional thawing has taken place, and we can feel our hearts again. These songs, as much as any, are so evocative of all the formative years and experiences we went through. And the music is so enduring–as the band said, these songs will still be listened to and deeply felt 200 and 300 years from now.

But there was one song in particular that stood out for me: “Old Friends.” I woke up this morning with that song on my mind. The past few weeks have been very special for how much I’ve been in touch with so many “Old Friends,” dating back 20 to 40+ years. I have both high school and a college reunions coming up this year. If you have dear old friends like I do, it’s a good time to cherish them, connect with them, and reflect on how you’ve been especially blessed. As one of the 50-ish concertgoers remarked when I talked about the music brings back memories about “our youth,” she said, “What do you mean our youth, you talk about it like it’s in the past–it’s not gone yet.” Amen to that.